The Week Ahead 06.22.12

Billed as the world’s largest event for the library community, the American Library Association conference underway in Anaheim features appearances from the likes of Dan Rather and Gaby Rodriguez – he, the famous news anchor; she, the 17-year-old trickster who staged her own pregnancy. The ALA programming also looks at digital publishing from a multitude of angles, including e-books, research, and “the digital lives of ‘tweens.” A survey released at ALA for the The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has surprised many with its findings on the numbers of e-book borrowers.

“According to the report, just 12% of Americans adults who read e-books say they have borrowed an e-book from a library in the past year. The survey also found that most of the public, not just e-book readers, are generally unaware they can even borrow e-books from libraries,” Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly features editor, tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “This level of ignorance about libraries and e-books even surprised Pew administrators.”

Booker-winner John Banville – writing as Benjamin Black – releases the fifth in his 1950s Irish series featuring pathologist Garret Quirke, Rose Fox reports in her weekly review of PW reviews. The mystery begins, she tells Chris Kenneally, when “one day wealthy Victor Delahaye takes 24-year-old Davy Clancy, the son of his business partner, out for a sail. Why then does Delahaye, after telling Davy a tale of his childhood about a lesson in self-reliance, pull out a gun and shoot himself in the chest?”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.